Rewire your Desire
Join us for an in-depth discussion of Dr Nicolosi’s 2024 randomised, placebo-controlled study, Memory Reconsolidation for Unwanted Sexually Arousing Memories. The study explored whether brief memory-reconsolidation interventions could reduce participants’ self-reported arousal, vividness, and emotional intensity connected to unwanted sexual memories, with follow-up at one and four weeks.
Dr Nicolosi’s clinical and research interests focus on trauma resolution, memory reconsolidation, unwanted sexual behaviour, and the treatment of compulsive sexual behaviour. He developed Reintegrative Therapy®, a trauma-focused approach that uses memory-reconsolidation methods and is described by its association as applicable to clients regardless of gender or sexuality. His published work includes research on unwanted sexually arousing memories, sexual-attraction fluidity, and binge eating. In addition to his clinical and academic work, he is a frequent public commentator on psychotherapy regulation, client autonomy, and therapeutic choice.
Dr Nicolosi will introduce the theoretical background, explain the study design and results, and consider what the findings may mean for clinical practice. The session will also make space for important questions about the study’s limitations, ethical considerations, and appropriate scope of interpretation.
This webinar is intended for therapists, counsellors, pastoral carers, students, and anyone interested in a careful, evidence-informed discussion of memory reconsolidation and unwanted sexual memories.
What you will explore:
The concept of memory reconsolidation and why it may be relevant to emotionally charged memories
The study’s four-group, placebo-controlled design
What participants reported about arousal, vividness, and emotional intensity
The clinical implications, limitations, and questions raised by the findings
How to interpret the study responsibly and avoid overgeneralising its conclusions
Important note: This webinar examines a study about unwanted sexual memories and subjective memory responses. It does not claim to change “sexual orientation”.
Nicolosi and Szanduła (2024), “Memory Reconsolidation for Unwanted Sexually Arousing Memories: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Study,” published in Integratus, the journal of the Catholic Psychotherapy Association reports that three brief memory-reconsolidation interventions reduced participants’ self-rated arousal, vividness, and emotional intensity of unwanted sexually arousing memories, with effects maintained at one and four weeks.
As part of the study,144 adults were randomised into four groups: three intervention groups and one placebo group. Each active condition was an eight-minute memory-reconsolidation procedure: Reintegrative Therapy, a feeling-state flash technique, and a blink-cycle method. Participants selected two unwanted sexually arousing memories—the study’s examples include sexual abuse, paraphilic interests, or sexually compulsive behaviour. Measures were self-reported arousal, vividness, and emotionality of the memories, assessed before and after treatment and at one-week and four-week follow-up.
For analysis, a two-way ANOVA tested effects of time, intervention type, and their interaction.
All three active interventions produced significantly greater reductions than placebo in:
- Subjective sexual arousal
- Memory vividness
- Emotional intensity of the memory
The authors report that these reductions were still present at both follow-up points. They conclude that the interventions “appear effective” in reducing the arousability, vividness, and emotionality of unwanted sexually arousing memories, and suggest possible relevance for therapy involving sexual abuse, paraphilic disorders, or sexually compulsive behaviour.
Date: Saturday 12th December 2026
Time: 5pm (GMT), 9am (PST)
Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, Jr.
Joseph Nicolosi Jr., Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist, author, researcher and clinical director at The Breakthrough Clinic in Southern California.
He is the president of the Reintegrative Therapy Association, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Dr. Nicolosi has provided expert testimony in multiple legislative hearings across the United States on psychotherapy bans related to LGBT-related therapy, has appeared on network television
news programs and podcasts and has written for The Federalist and the Washington Examiner.
He received his Ph.D. in 2009 from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology.